The evolution of the point guard has brought us Derrick Rose and Russell Westbrook: big, fast, unguardable. The era of game managers and pure passers has slowly faded, leaving only a few of that breed left to hold the torch for the old school.

This new school lead guard style has temporarily masked the brilliance of the likes of Jason Kidd, Steve Nash, Rajon Rondo, Ricky Rubio, and the other pure point guards who manage a game rather than control it with scoring. But over the last three months two East Coast purists have been putting on a display of passing that proves the old school role isn’t extinct yet. Read More »

The first month of the college hoops season has already had enough defining moments to warrant the Luther Vandross treatment.

There was the poignant high of Coach K surpassing his mentor Bob Knight as the all-time leader in NCAA D-I coaching wins; the gut-wrenching (and ongoing) low of Syracuse assistant Bernie Fine throwing his program into scandal; the inspiring comeback stories of Arizona forward Kevin Parrom and Kansas forward Thomas Robinson; made-for-March upsets like UNLV over North Carolina, Presbyterian over Cincinnati, and Central Florida over UConn; and big-time matchups like Ohio State vs. Duke, Kentucky vs. Kansas, and Syracuse vs. Florida that were dipped in Tournament atmosphere.

This past weekend, though, gave us the most thrilling game, the highest display of talent, and the most grand exhibition of the best of college basketball, all wrapped in one 40-minute showcase in Lexington, Ky. Here is that game, plus the rest of the best and worst of the weekend: Read More »

It takes a full-time job, or a full-time class schedule, for one to truly appreciate a four-day weekend. And when those two extra days off come courtesy the Thanksgiving holiday, the full-time college basketball fan (or writer) goes into overtime mode.

Just about every D-I team in the country seemed to be playing in a holiday tournament this past weekend – from the balmy paradise of the Bahamas to the cold-ass bustle of New York City on Black Friday. When it was over, some top dogs were going home with their national-championship promise in doubt, while some underdogs returned to campus with brand-new hero status.

Here are the highlights and lowlights from the long weekend: Read More »

Our Saturday started off as perfectly as possible with news greeting us as our alarm clocks rang that a tentative labor agreement had been reached, and that the lockout was finally, if unofficially, over. For now, we can’t completely invest ourselves in a new season – scheduled to be 66 games, starting on Christmas day – but pretty much everyone agrees on one thing: this deal will get approved and will get done. Book it. So who won and who lost? With the cancellation of games, everyone loses: the fans, the owners and the players. But as far as the approved deal, many of the leading names on both sides came out of this looking as good as they could’ve under the current circumstances. Read More »

Hidden between the lines of the most depressing sports stories of the week – Penn State’s cover-up scandal putting a dark cloud over college football, and the NBA lockout threatening to put pro basketball on indefinite hiatus – are two words that should cheer up anybody who frequents this site: “college” and “basketball.” Read More »

You know big expectations are in store when you win by 16 points and yet the opposing crowd is still chanting overrated. But that’s just how it’s going to be all season for North Carolina. UNC Asheville isn’t much competition, no matter what Tyler Zeller (27 points) tried to say after the game was over. North Carolina did the same thing on Sunday that they did against Michigan State: play well enough to take control, and go on cruise control the rest of the way. Honestly, this team is so loaded with star power that they can get away with it. Yesterday, it wasn’t just Zeller but all of the big guns. Harrison Barnes dropped another cool 17 points, but was still out-shined by Kendall Marshall (15 assists) and John Henson (20 points, 12 rebounds). It is still early, but do you think they are at all overrated? … Read More »

*College basketball is here (unlike the NBA), and this year might be one of the best in recent memory. The powerhouse is back, while the Cinderellas believe. That’s a deadly combination. We know some of y’all have been asking for some previews. We have you covered – we’ve previewed each of the top 16 teams in the country. Today is the final one. After we broke down contenders Ohio State and Kentucky yesterday, we’ll finish this off with the best team in the country, No. 1-ranked UNC (ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll).* Read More »

After an efficient sophomore year in which he averaged 13.0 points on 45.5 percent shooting, including 47.4 percent from distance, Marquette guard Darius Johnson-Odom upped his scoring average by nearly three points this season and made big strides on the defensive end to became an All-Big East Second Team selection. On Sunday, DJO poured in 17 points, including the game-winning triple with 25 seconds left, to lift Marquette to an upset over 3-seeded Syracuse that clinched the school’s first Sweet 16 birth since the Dwyane Wade era. Friday, DJO will look to continue his hot play against No. 2 North Carolina, a school that he grew up about 40 minutes from in Raleigh, N.C, yet still wasn’t recruited by. Here are his words: Read More »

I’ve grown so accustomed to college basketball’s one-and-done culture that now it’s startling to see an NCAA team with as much veteran poise as Duke. The current landscape has also trained me to stop looking at a team like North Carolina and making predictions for next year.

In the Blue Devils’ latest win over their blood rivals this week, the defending national champions were down 14 at halftime as Carolina was beating Duke at their own game in their own gym. Read More »

Some surprising news hit campus this morning: North Carolina junior point guard Larry Drew II will transfer from the university, Coach Roy Williams announced Friday.

“This morning, around 9 o’clock, I got a message to call big Larry,” said Williams at his Friday press conference in reference to Drew’s father, the head coach of the Atlanta Hawks. “At that point he informed me Larry was leaving, and we had a long discussion, most of which should be kept private.” Read More »